Repeat winner, newcomer get top art show prizes

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Mike Kozumplik, overall
art winner at the Black Swamp Arts Festival, with his jewelry. (Photos: J.D.
Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune)

A newcomer and an old hand and frequent award winner took the two top prizes at the Black Swamp Arts
Festival this weekend.
Best of Show went to jeweler Mike Kozumplik, the fourth time the Sherwood resident has won the festival’s
top prize.
The Dorothy Uber Bryan Painting Award went to Andrew Van Schyndle from Wisconsin. This was the first time
Van Schyndle had exhibited at the show. "I’ve heard good things about it from other artists,"
he said.
And the festival lived up to those advance raves. "It was great."
He said he was especially pleased to get an award created to honor a painter. That Dorothy Bryan battled
and eventually succumbed to cancer and made art reflecting her experience made the award touching
because he said in the past year he’s had family members and members of the art fair circuit family who
have been diagnosed with the disease.
Van Schyndle started drawing 20 years ago when he and his friends would emulate the work they saw on TV
and video games.
His work turned more to realism, with paintings of wildlife and nature. When Van Schyndle went to the
University of Wisconsin at Green Bay in his hometown, he discovered surrealism.
All those influences – the pop culture references, the realistic draftsmanship and the surprising
juxtapositions – all come together in a style he calls "Midwest surrealism."
His paintings include images of vampire penguins, farm animals watching films about dinosaurs and space
aliens, a bird carrying a carnival ride.
Dennis Wojtkiewicz said it was reminiscent of the animated film work of Tim Burton. And Van Schyndle’s
booth with a towering superstructure made of wood, only enhanced the effect.
"You enter into this world," Wojtkiewicz said. "The booth supports the work and vice
versa… The complete package is an important part of how you respond."
Fellow juror Walter Zurko said the work was "dark, but with humor."
That’s part of Van Schyndle’s intent. He sees art fairs as a kind of carnival that merge entertainment
with fine art.

The Dorothy Uber Bryan
Painting award winner, Andrew Van Schyndle, stands with his paintings

Masako Onodera said Van Schyndle was represented of a new generation of exhibitors.
Katelyn Bloom, of Bowling Green who was visiting Van Schyndle’s booth, echoed that sentiment. "He
has an inspiration we haven’t seen anywhere else… He’s my favorite new artist."
The Montessori School of Bowling Green was chosen to select a work by the Bryan winner, which will be
displayed in the school.
Kozumplik has been exhibiting work at the festival since the late 1990s. He’s won a number of honors,
including Best of Show last year.
"I find it hard to believe I got it two years in a row," he said. "Awards let me know I’m
going in the right direction."
His work draws natural images. Onodera, a jeweler, said his work showed "impressive craftsmanship
and quality of design."
Wojtkiewicz said "here’s an elegance to the look of the work, a very professional patina to it
all."
He noted that the second place winner Amy Beeler, a Toledo jeweler also employs natural images, seed pods
in her case.
Kozumplik, who grew up on a farm in Defiance County, said he started out drawing and painting nature, and
that if he weren’t a jeweler, he’d be a landscape painter.
Other winners were:
• Third place – Tim Niewiadomski, woodwork.
• Honorable mention – Ed Brownlee, ceramics; Robert Coleman, glass; Chris Coffey, photography; John
Booth, painting; and Kimberly Rorick, ceramics.
• Community Purchase Award went to Cherie Haney, sculpture, selected by the Sentinel-Tribune.
Wojtkiewicz said he was impressed by the high level of craftsmanship in every booth.

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